mercredi 27 août 2008

Photo : A piece from Navin Thomas’s “Still Asleep Series,” which will be featured in an inaugural show of photography and video at the Devi Art Foundation.

These days the sofa is shoved into a corner, and the rest of the big square space is taken up by a life-size model of an antique cream-colored Jaguar with a giant mechanical dinosaur mounting it from behind. On the dining table sits a row of exquisitely delicate sculptures made of human bone and red velvet. A video installation has found a home above a bathroom tub. For Mr. Poddar, 34, buying art long ago stopped being a question of what to hang on which wall. Installations, many of them large and provocative, squeezed themselves into each room, across the garden, in the driveway and in every lavatory.“It just took over my life. I had to throw out most of my furniture,” Mr. Poddar confessed. “It became an obsession. The term hobby is too tame. It almost controls you.” The private obsession Mr. Poddar shares with his mother, Lekha, who lives downstairs, is about to become a public boon. What they have collected separately and together over the last 30 years will be exhibited in a new space in the suburb of Gurgaon, what will be, in effect, India’s first contemporary art museum.Spread over two floors and 7,500 square feet in an office tower, the Devi Art Foundation, as it is called, is due to open on Saturday, with an inaugural show of photography and video called “Still Moving Image.” It features the work of 25 artists, a fraction of the roughly 2,000 contemporary pieces that make up Mr. Poddar’s collection, along with an estimated 5,000 folk and tribal pieces, which are his mother’s passion. India is bursting with commercial art galleries, but Devi is poised to be what the Poddars’ home has been for many years: a noncommercial, nonprofit exhibition space for contemporary art from India and the subcontinent. Yamini Mehta, director of modern and contemporary Indian art at Christie’s auction house in London, described it as “a truly groundbreaking first for India.”In a way, Devi (online at www.deviartfoundation.org) is the natural next step for a country awash in new wealth, soaring art prices and a prolific crop of artists and collectors. Think of it as India’s turn to do what the United States did in the early 20th century, when wealthy patrons came together to give birth to some of the most important American cultural institutions. India is not there yet, cautions Vishakha N. Desai, the India-born president of Asia Society in New York, but perhaps heading in that direction. “I would very much hope that like-minded people will come together to build larger civic institutions that go beyond any individual collector or founder,” Ms. Desai said in an e-mail message.

A modern art museum is also under way in the eastern city of Calcutta. Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architecture firm that built the Tate Modern in London, is designing it. Construction is to start next year, and the museum is to open in late 2013, said Rakhi Sarkar, a collector there and one of the driving forces behind the museum. To be sure, there have always been art collectors in India, from erstwhile royalty to the old Indian business families like the Poddars. But the last decade of economic growth has thrust many new buyers into the art market, spurred on art funds that invest in paintings as one might in, say, soybean shares, and in turn sent prices shooting up almost overnight. All the while, a handful of wealthy Indians have been collecting with serious, singular purpose. Harsh Goenka, who heads a family-owned conglomerate based in Mumbai, has a special yen for portraits. Priti and Priya Paul, sisters who run the Apeejay Group of businesses, have built on their family’s collections: Priti’s passion is video art, while Priya’s is popular art like old calendars, advertisements and film memorabilia.

The birth of the Devi Art Foundation signals a sort of turning point in the Indian art scene, in that it opens up a private family trove to the public and is devoted entirely to contemporary art.The Poddars are known in the art world here for their daring eye, for seeking out artists before they start fetching high prices or become recognizable names at fashionable Delhi dinner parties. Mr. Poddar scouts art college graduations for new talent, though it must be said that many of the artists he sought out years ago, like Subodh Gupta and Sudarshan Shetty, are now among the most recognizable names at those fashionable parties.“While most collectors in India still ‘buy with their ears,’ ” said Peter Nagy, a transplanted New Yorker who runs the Nature Morte gallery here, “the Poddars have always listened to their hearts and brains and have never been afraid to be independent in their choices.” “It’s a Routine Scrutiny” by Susanta Mandal, from the vast collection of Anupam Poddar and his mother, Lekha. Mr. Poddar, whose day job is running an upscale hotel company, admits to being inspired by his mother, who began collecting modern and folk art several decades ago. Except that the work his mother sought out, including pieces by the post-Indian-independence generation of artists known as the Progressives, did not resonate with the son. He gravitated toward artists of his own generation. “Their vision of India was similar to mine,” he said. “It was being part of this — I hate this word — global world. It wasn’t just India. It wasn’t so isolated. They were working with sculpture, installation, with new media.”

His first acquisition, in 1999, was a life-size pink fiberglass cow by Mr. Gupta. “It was quintessentially Indian but modern in its essence,” he said. “That’s what spoke to me.” The obsession flowered quickly. Each room became a gallery devoted to one artist. Bharti Kher’s work now takes up his mother’s bedroom, including an elephant covered in squiggly, sperm-shaped bindis, which Indian women use as adornments on the forehead.The Jaguar-dinosaur in the living room is a 2006 piece by Mr. Shetty that Mr. Poddar describes as “an overgrown toy.” With the flick of a switch, the dinosaur’s heart throbs and it mates with the Jaguar. Mr. Gupta made a cow-dung cave that sits in the dining room. Mrs. Poddar said it stank when it first arrived, freshly assembled. Sometimes her dog nibbled on it.Mr. Poddar acquired the bone and velvet series, by Anita Dube, from its previous owner, whose family did not want it displayed at home, which is understandable. One of the pieces is a human rib cage fashioned into a bordello-style red velvet fan. It found pride of place on the dining table here — in a vegetarian household, no less. Art, Mr. Poddar is fond of saying, is something you have to live with no matter how provocative. “You can’t avoid it. Also, it’s not safe.” Sometimes, he said, he wonders why he hadn’t taken up gardening instead.The government-run National Gallery of Modern Art, which has sites here and in Mumbai, only rarely shows contemporary work. At Devi, the schedule next year includes a show of Pakistani art and one of folk and tribal art from across India.“There is no commercial angle,” Mrs. Poddar said. “We don’t have to be afraid.”

Publié par
hervé perdriolle

samedi 23 août 2008

Source : The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The high and mighty in the world of Indian art and its western promoters are now in the sprawling arena of the capital's exhibition grounds to take contemporary Indian art and a few foreign exhibits to the masses. In the process, it is pushing the boundaries of trade and appreciation of the medium beyond galleries and stray shows. The country's first official art fair, India Art Summit 2008, blurred the boundaries between niche and the mass as hundreds trooped into Pragati Maidan to see what was on offer as the three-day extravaganza opened Friday - a lavish and eclectic cache of works by modern and contemporary artists. The summit served as a business forum as well, with industry representatives, gallery owners and global auction houses representatives, not to mention the artists themselves, meeting under one roof to interact and analyse current trends in Indian art. The international crossover and the spectrum of the popularity and commercial viability of Indian art were never felt more profoundly as it was felt at the summit venue. Big names like Phillip Hoffman, founder of the world's oldest and largest art hedge fund - The Fine Art Fund - , Robert Storr, dean of the Yale College of Art, and auction house Sotheby's deputy director for India, Maithili Parekh, rubbed shoulders with galleries, art dealers, artists and buyers from across the world. So when did the crossover in Indian art begin? If Hoffman is to be believed, Indian art started crossing over to the west three to four years ago, courtesy art fairs, biennales, gallery and museum shows of Indian artists abroad. "The Indian art market is becoming global and Indian artists are now featuring in international auctions. Quality Indian art has an important edge over international art," Hoffman said, addressing an open session with the media Friday. Explaining the advantage, Hoffman said: "Some time ago, I was speaking to a billionaire from Italy who found an Indian artist featured in one of the catalogues of a global auction. "He said Indian art was so inexpensive. If he had to purchase similar work by an American artist, he would have to purchase it for $1 million - whereas he would be able to buy similar quality art for $50,000 from an Indian artist." The focus, the panel of art investment pundits and auctioneers inferred, was shifting from the American and British domination in global art to Indian and Asian dominance primarily because of quality and pricing. But Hoffman felt that the Indian art market was still speculative. And buyers had to be well informed about quality and pricing before purchasing art works. Day One of the summit broke many myths. Academic Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, was emphatic that Indian art did not need validation from the west. "There has been decentralisation of capital and communication," he said in response to a query from the media. "The economy has changed. Anyone can buy Indian art, be it a sheikh from Dubai or collector from Hong Kong. One does not go to the west to validate it." Putting the issue in historical perspective, Maithili Parekh of Sotheby's said Indian artists had to validate their work 50 years ago. "Those were the times when our country was battling several issues and there was no one to validate art. But not any more," she said. Citing an instance, she said in an auction of contemporary art in February, Sotheby's exhibited a handful of Indian artists like Bharti Kher, Anju Dodiya and Subodh Gupta along with post- war masters Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol. And nobody asked what the Indians were doing there.

vendredi 22 août 2008

Fourteen works by controversial artist Damien Hirst will be shown for the first time ever in India. Source : Business Standard, Kishore Singh, New Delhi August 22, 2008,

He’s the world’s most expensive living artist, the most admired and the most reviled, and now he’s coming to show in India. Fourteen works by Damien “£50-million” Hirst will be exhibited for the first time ever at an exclusive viewing in New Delhi on August 28, as part of a select showing before a Sotheby’s auction in mid-September in London.Credit it to India’s growing muscle power in the world of art. “A small group of Indian collectors is buying international art,” confirms Sotheby’s India representative (deputy director, business development) Maithili Parekh, “and it’s growing at a very fast pace”. And no, before you ask, it’s against Sotheby’s policy to give out names.Two hundred and twenty three of Hirst’s works, two years in the making and titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, will be consigned to auction for value estimated to be in excess of £65 million. Interestingly — or perhaps ironically — Hirst’s first showing in India is attracting parallels with “the Damien Hirst of Delhi” as Indian artist Subodh Gupta is popularly regarded.That, though, is where comparisons end. Gupta, making waves in the West, is the recognisable face of Indian contemporary art, whereas Hirst — the most prominent of the YBAs or Young British Artists — has been known to turn the stomachs of viewers and leave them heaving with his “art about death”.His works have raised furious debates about what art constitutes, particularly his large works in formaldehyde in which he has “pickled”, according to some, a 14-ft shark, sheep, and grossly, a cow and a calf after being dissected. Less gruesome works consist of hundreds of dead butterflies, cancer cells, skulls and pills.Born in 1965 in Bristol, Hirst lives in London, Devon and Mexico and was among the most powerful of his generation’s artists in the eighties, before succumbing to drug and alcohol abuse and increasingly wild behaviour in the nineties. His description of 9/11 as “an artwork in its own right” caused a furore, for which insensitive remark he subsequently apologised.The enfant terrible of contemporary art who transcends realistic works, decorative pieces, bronze sculpture, spin paintings and spot canvases, sold For the Love of God for an astounding £50 million. The work, a macabre grinning skull covered with 8,601 fine diamonds, drew further parallels with death in the diamond trade when the film Blood Diamond was released. The title, so urban legend goes, came about with Hirst’s mother lamenting: “For the love of god, what are you going to do next?”Hirst’s works in India — or at the forthcoming Sotheby’s sale — look less likely to disturb, and might find buyers among this country’s growing community of billionaires and millionaires (works start at £15,000-20,000, though they go on to £8-12 million).Interestingly, interest from Indian buyers is more likely to be for homegrown artist Tyeb Mehta’s Falling Figure with Bird estimated in the range of $1-1.5 million at Sotheby’s New York auction. With Christie’s simultaneous auction of South Asian modern and contemporary art, also in New York, it will be interesting to see whether Hirst or Indian artists carry the day.

Publié par
hervé perdriolle

lundi 18 août 2008

Source : The Economic Times,Ashoke NagKOLKATA: Sotheby’s is uncorking Indian contemporary photography at its September auction in New York. The auction is projecting photography as the next big development on the Indian artistic horizon. Each photographic image is estimated in the range of $5,000-15,000. Among the lots is ‘Fragments of a Wedding Diary’ by Surekha, the 3rd edition of 5, which is a digital image on archival paper. This is a set of 33 framed photographs executed in 2001. Estimated at $10,000-15,000, the work has been exhibited in museums in Finland and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. Another piece includes Sunil Gupta’s ‘Homelands’. The work was showcased in the seminal exhibition, ‘India: Public Places, Private Spaces, Contemporary Photography and Video Art’ in Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey in 2007. It was included in a show in Switzerland in 2007. Gupta’s work at Sotheby’s is estimated to fetch between $5,000-7,000. Featuring in the selection of photographs is also Vivek Vilasini’s “humorous” work titled ‘Last Supper’. Here, he depicts people in Kathakali outfits seated around a dining table as Christ and his Apostles. “The choreographed work showcases the beauty and ability of photography as a medium,” said Ms Maithili Parekh, Sotheby’s deputy director. The value of the photograph is between $10,000-15,000. In the collection is also ‘There Is No Border Here’, a piece photographed by Shilpa Gupta estimated in the range of $6,000-8,000. In step, one finds Tejal Shah’s ‘Encounter(s)’ executed in 2006. Shah’s works have figured in solo exhibits in Mumbai, Berlin and New York. ‘Encounter(s)’ is pegged at an estimate of $6,000-8,000. “As art prices for paintings and sculptures reach astronomical levels, collectors are turning toward photography which is an affordable and, yet, innovative medium. There are also photographic shows being staged in venues like Newark Museum, New Jersey. Now, Sotheby’s is bringing cutting-edge Indian photography at its Indian art sale in New York,” Ms Parekh said.

Publié par
hervé perdriolle

dimanche 17 août 2008

Source : The Times of India, Neelam Raaj,TNN NEW DELHI: Indian artists have gone global and now, international auction houses are hoping desi buyers will too. In a bid to tempt Indian collectors, who have shown an inclination only for homebred artists till now, into buying western art, Sotheby's is bringing highlights from its upcoming sale of Damien Hirst's works to India. Besides giving potential buyers a preview of the September sale in London, it will give art lovers here a rare chance to see Hirst's work. The showing — the artist's first-ever in India — will be held at the Capital's Oberoi Hotel on August 28. Hirst, known for his trademark dead animals in formaldehyde, is Britain's richest living artist and perhaps its most provocative. He is groundbreaking not just as an artist but also in the way he markets his art. By tying up with Sotheby's to sell his latest body of work at an auction, he's circumvented the traditional dealer, gallery system. And he's expected to reap the profits. The two-day London auction of works which come straight from the Hirst's studio is expected to fetch in excess of 65m pounds ($125m approx). The Golden Calf, the centrepiece of the 'Beautiful Inside My Head Forever' sale, is expected to realise 12m pounds ($24m approx). Though the Calf with its 18-carat gold horns and hooves will not be travelling to India, 14 other works — including Hirst's top-selling butterfly paintings, skulls and some bling — will be showcased here. Also travelling to Delhi will be a Tyeb Mehta work from his Falling Figure With Bird series. The piece, a highlight from Sotheby's upcoming New York auction of Asian and contemporary art, is valued at $1-1.5m. Oliver Barker, senior international specialist at Sotheby's, said the Hirst exhibition in India was part of a broader corporate strategy to focus on emerging markets. Not surprising, since a lot of demand in the global market is being driven by wealthy Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern investors. "Till now, Indian collectors — both resident and non-resident — have shown an interest in art originating from their own culture but now they are thinking global. This is a relatively new phenomenon," says Barker. Interestingly, the reverse is also true with western collectors like Frank Cohen and Francois Pinault showing an increasing appetite for Indian art. So much so that works of Indian artists like Subodh Gupta (dubbed the Damien Hirst of Delhi) are not relegated to some ethnic category at international auctions but mixed with the best from around the world. Thus, a Gupta frame is alongside art by Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol in the same auction. So it isn't a surprise that now, Damien is looking Delhi-ward. "People will be blown away by the scale and ambition of Hirst's collection. I think he's interested in getting work into parts of the world that have not had the opportunity of buying major pieces before, including India, China and Russia - and we've certainly had a lot of interest from collectors in these places." Paddle in hand, the Indian buyer is an increasingly common sight in global art auctions. And now, his palette is turning global too.

Publié par
hervé perdriolle

samedi 16 août 2008

Source : Sindh Today Aug 15th, 2008New York, Aug 15 (IANS) International auction house Christie’s is all set to spice up sales in mid September here with its 140 lots of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, which will see major works from modern masters to cutting edge artists like Tyeb Mehta, M.F Husain, J. Swaminathan, Ram Kumar and Subodh Gupta.The sale desires to succeed an overall estimate of $12 million. The highlights include a 1979 Tyeb Mehta Untitled (’Yellow Heads’) assessed at $300,000-500,000 (Rs.12.7 million-Rs.25.5 million). This painting is reminiscent of Tyeb’s diagonal series in which he divides the plane of the canvas with a prominent slanting line. M.F. Husain’s ‘Ritual’, valued in the bracket of $600,000-800,000, reflects Husain’s sensibility that grew out of the roots of Cubism, Expressionism and Abstraction.The sale also features an important work by Ram Kumar, who was influenced by names like Modigliani and Leger. The Untitled work, created in 1961, is estimated in the range of $500,000-700,000. Indian abstract guru J. Swaminathan, who was known to inspire many a young artist at Bhopal Bhavan is represented by a work that seeks its inspiration from folk and tribal art, miniatures as well as Indian mythology. His Untitled work here is from his ‘Bird and Mountain’ Series and is estimated at $300,000-500,000.Also in the sale is Rameshwar Broota’s ‘The Same Old Story II’, a 1979 oil on canvas, pegged poignantly in the range of $150,000-200,000. Manjit Bawa’s Untitled, an amazing oil, painted in 1992 is placed in the bracket of $150,000-200,000. This is an unusual Krishna with an embellished head dress of a single peacock feather and wispy white and lavender structures beaming out of his head. Interestingly Bawa’s work is the image on Christie’s card for its Aug 20 preview in New Delhi.Among the contemporary art offerings in the younger set of artists, Subodh Gupta’s symbolism is shown by two major works. ‘Miter’, revolving around stainless steel and stainless steel utensils, boasts of an estimate of $600,000-800,000. This work is the third in an edition of three. In the same vein, Gupta’s oil on canvas, ‘Steal 2′, is priced at $800,000-1 million.Most important however in terms of artistic import is Mumbai-dwelling Kerala artist Riyas Komu who is set to blaze Berlin’s Bodhi Art in October with a solo showing. At the Christie’s sale here, Komu’s ‘Designated March of a Petro-Angel’, an oil on canvas, is estimated at $60,000-80,000. This work was exhibited at the Venice Biennale 2007. The art work belongs to a series of monumental photo-realist images of a bewildered, veiled Iranian woman looking dramatically in different directions, struggling to find her place in society. It was among the strongest contemporary paintings on show in Venice and Komu co-opted an Islamic vocabulary to make the work speak of an international as well as urgent resonance.

Publié par
hervé perdriolle

lundi 11 août 2008

Source : Moneycontrol.com New Delhi, Aug. 10 Bajaj Capital, an investment advisory company and distributor of financial products, has diversified into art advisory services. For the purpose, the company has set up an art house — Bajaj Capital Art House.“Of late, our clients have started showing interest in other asset classes like art. So we decided to extend our advisory services to art. What we are going to offer is neither a portfolio management scheme nor an art fund. It would be services like advice on buying and selection of art works,” Mr Rajiv Deep Bajaj, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director of Bajaj Capital, told Business Line.Mr Bajaj highlighted that art had limited downside as compared with pure equities. For Bajaj Capital insiders, art advisory services are dubbed as “seventh wonder” as it is the seventh area that the company is entering into. The company is already providing advisory services in direct equity, mutual funds, real estate, life insurance, general insurance and fixed income.

Market size The size of the art market is currently estimated at about Rs 1,500 crore and it is recording an annual growth of 30-35 per cent. The auction size was $5 million in 2003 and has grown to $50 million in 2008. In India, the levy of capital gains tax legitimises art as an asset class, Ms Sushma K. Bahl, an art consultant, pointed out.Taken from Business Line, thehindubusinessline.in

mercredi 6 août 2008

Source : Sify Finance Minna Kumar Volatile stock markets have become the norm. Real estate requires huge chunks of investment and bank deposit rates are hardly able to keep up with rising inflation rate. Given this scenario, art seems to have become a safe option for investment. Art experts feel that, apart from gold, it is the only commodity which gives steady returns. Art can make its own money over a period of time. The flip side is equally relevant. With surging salaries for technology and finance professionals and a growing middle-class ready to splurge, art in India has many takers. It has also led to art prices increasing substantially over the past decade. fund your investment The organised art market in the country is valued at around Rs 800 crore a year, which experts say is growing at a rate of over 30 per cent per annum. According to Osian's-Connoisseurs of Art Private Ltd, a leading archive and auction house, those eager to invest must come ready not only with funds but also with expertise. Apart from taking a call on the type of artist, art collectors have to take a long-term stand towards this form of investment. Given the steady rise in the value of artwork, this form of investment is certainly not short term. Give it some time and this does not mean lifetime but at least around three years. In some cases, certain pieces of art have given 100 per cent returns and more. Financial institutions such as Citibank, ABN Amro, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have had to foresight to look at art as a viable form of investment. Banks have set up art advisories, where high networth individuals (HNIs) are offered advice to select and purchase or sell art works. Several banks have tied-up with auction houses and art galleries for the purpose. A number of financial institutions like Edelweiss Capital and Dawnay Day have also come out with art funds or schemes, trying to cash in on this growing new market. Art funds typically operate by pooling in money from select investors and use it to buy art objects that have huge appreciation potential in a short period of time. These funds may soon come under the purview of market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Apart from private collectors and art galleries, art can also be purchased through online auctions. Through this medium, collectors can purchase works of artists in other parts of the country and also get a mix of well established and lesser-known artists. Online auctions like Saffronart, which featured the work of painters, sculptors and installation artists, attracted art lovers and investment oriented people from across the globe. Prices of works of art are surging like never before. Recently, a 1971 water colour by M F Husain titled “Shiva” recently sold for Rs 34 lakh. About a decade ago, Hussain’s works fetched about Rs 60,000. Auctions of modern and contemporary Indian art have fetched million of dollars in overseas markets in recent years. For example, Christie’s sold a Tyeb Mehta painting for $1.6 million just two years ago. With international auctioneers taking a keen interest in the Indian art scene, a growing brood of art curators, advisories, auctioneers and online galleries, there is no derth for ways and means to purchase art. Potential investors are however advised to do their homework about the artists, his previous works, the authenticity of the artwork and the dealer or gallery.

This newsletter posted by Hervé Perdriolle in October 2007, tracks the news of the Indian Contemporary Art through an international press review regularly updated.Since 2008 more than 1.800 press articles listed - 145.000 pages viewed.